11 creative professions that use sketching as a tool in their design process and why
From UX designers to movie directors, great ideas start with simple sketches
--
Being a UX designer, I often wonder what other creators do during their design process. I’m obsessed with refining my own process in order design faster, smarter, and work better on teams. I talked to a few friends from different creative professions and read some articles online. One thing many of us share in common is the simplicity of sketching.
Here are a few professions that use sketching to help them brainstorm new ideas and better communicate with one another…
Architects
“You can get a lot of buy in from clients on a project if you are able to express quickly and clearly what you want on a piece of paper.”
— Cedric Burgers, Architect
Animators and Storyboard Artists
“(Sketching out) a storyboard is a way to write a story using pictures instead of words. The goal is to find actions, presented visually, that provide clues to what the character is thinking, feeling or wants.”
Character Designers
“Pixar’s artists use traditional media to draw the initial design of their characters. An artist typically does hundreds, sometimes thousands, of sketches before they are satisfied with the design of their character. A major character goes through a much longer design process and often includes a number of artists and the director working to create the look, feel and personality of the character.”
— Pixar, Character Design
Industrial Designers
“A good sketch conveys the designer’s ideas without being overly worked. Drawings don’t have to be crisp and sharp. It’s better to get several good ideas down quickly and relay multiple thoughts and ideas at a glance. The main focus at this point is to convey imagination and fresh thinking and not focus on or ‘noodle’ one idea.”
— Adam Fairless, Industrial Designer
Footwear Designers
“I’ve adopted (sketching) as a primary tool for moving through the early phases of a project. I’ll make notes all around the sketches. One sketch leads to another. I’m having a conversation with myself.”
— Tinker Hatfield, Nike Footwear Designer
Engineers
“Some engineers cannot communicate without sketching, and it may seem odd, but hand sketching is a means to clarify thinking, just like writing. Ideas can be tested, relationships explored, and details developed. Without the ability to hand sketch, a structural engineer may be at a loss to perform critical structural engineering thinking. The ability to think critically saves money and time for consumers of structural engineering services. As a profession, we cannot afford to let this skill die because of a perceived lack of technological sophistication.”
— Peter Carrato, Civil Engineer
UX/Product/Interaction Designers
“Words are powerful, but sometimes they don’t cut it. We can try to describe what we’re imagining, but a diagram often gets us to a common ground quicker.”
— Jared Spool, UX Designer
Carpenters
“My sketch book is where I begin. Here, I work out design and proportion. Here, I ask questions and solve problems. I’ll even make notes about fabrication constraints or generate a bill of materials. A sketch book isn’t just drawings, but notes and reminders too!”
— Mike, Woodworker and Carpenter
Interior Designers
“In a recent meeting, the client was able to sketch on my sketch, which had a level of interactivity and excitement that bonded us even closer and led to better mutual understanding.”
— John Abbate, Interior Designer
Graphic Designers
“Sketching is meant to be fast, fun, and free. Your hand is more free than it would be with using Illustrator.”
— Aaron Draplin, Graphic Designer
Movie Directors
“It helps me to hone in on my thought process, which tends to be all over the place… Plus, sometimes a doodle will remain with me and I’ll draw it over and over. In a weird way that’s how I know something has meaning.”
— Tim Burton, Movie Director
Why all the sketching?
People have been sketching for a long time. Leonardo Di Vinci’s sketches were once described as, “a private conversation between him and his hands.” But with the advent of digital drawing tools why do some people still prefer to sketch with a pen and paper?
Sketching gives you a place to start
Many creative professionals start with a pen and paper. The process of thinking through sketching helps get their creative juices flowing.
Sketching helps you document the process
Early on in any design process ideas come and go. Sketching forces you to shift the ideas in your head to paper. Sketching helps you document those ideas in real-time as they arise. Documenting the different iterations makes it easier to visually see where what you’ve explored and, more importantly, what you haven’t explored yet.
Sketching is fast and easy
Sketching gives you freedom to explore ideas quickly as they arise. Sketching helps you problem solve faster. You can shuffle through various sketches without worrying about making them perfect. You are able to iterate fast. Early on in your design process, speed is everything. You don’t want to get stuck on one idea for too long.
“The real value of sketching is that it allows you to explore and refine ideas in a quick, iterative and visual manner with little overhead or learning curve. Rapid ideation around flow and interaction, layout and hierarchy, can be quickly established, rearranged or discarded wholesale — all without ever touching a computer.”
Sketching is a common language that can bring clarity to an idea
We all drew with crayons when we were children. Sketching is a universal language that helps us understand one another. It helps you explain what words sometimes can’t. It’s the ultimate “show, don’t tell” method. This is especially important when designing on a diverse team. Sketching breeds clarity. The only way to for others to clearly see what is in your mind is by you showing them visually.
Sketching breeds collaboration
Coming to a meeting with sketches communicates to the rest of team that the idea is not finished. This welcomes conversation and collaboration. Sketches aren’t intimating in the same way that a finely crafted, Dribbble worthy design is. Also, it’s been said that sketching around clients and stakeholders is an easy way to increase team collaboration. It helps get the stakeholders involved in the design process.
Sketching is a tool accessible to the whole team
You can’t share and interact with any other medium in the way you can with paper sketches. They are easy to hang up in the office where people can interact with them. People can draw on top of your sketches and add to them. It can be a great way you to garner feedback from others. With sketching, you don’t have to learn any fancy design tools. You put your pen to paper or marker to whiteboard and let the ideas flow. It allows everyone on your team to work together regardless of title or position. Anybody can sketch!
Sketches only need to communicate intent — they do not need to communicate detail. So time spent prettying them up, or getting them just perfect is wasted time. — Jason Fried
In summary, sketching is a simple tool used by many creative professionals across industries. A sketch helps you communicate visually whats in your head. It’s a tried and true method to help you move from one idea to the next while keeping everyone on the team on the same page.
Here are some other great resources on sketching!
- Sketching: The Visual Thinking Power Tool (Article)
- Sketchers are Better Thinkers (Video)
- Web Designers: Roll up Your Sleeves and Sketch! (Article)
- Why We Sketch (Article)
- Sketching and Experience Design (Vide0)
Thanks for reading!
Please feel free to leave a comment below or reach out to me on Twitter. If you enjoyed the article please show me some love by giving it a 💓
